Just after 12:30 p.m., California Highway Patrol officers arrived, saying they needed to keep access on and off the island open after emergency personnel had been unable to get through in response to an earlier 9-1-1 call.
Sgt. Andrew Barclay, CHP spokesperson, said the agency “supports peoples’ right to First Amendment speech, protected protest.”
Initially, protesters appeared to abide by CHP’s request, moving cars out of their way while continuing to sing hymns, bang drums and play music. But after CHP threatened to begin making arrests if protesters did not move around 2:30 p.m., organizers called on the crowd to disperse.
The protest in Oakland has been the first of many expected in the Bay Area in response to the immigration officials’ arrival. The dispatch has triggered fears that Trump was following through on promises to ramp up immigration enforcement operations in the Bay Area.
Sandra, 25, arrived at the demonstration shortly before noon. She said she planned to stay for a few hours before heading into San Francisco for another rally planned this evening.
“I come from a family of mixed status people,” said Sandra, an East Bay resident and DACA recipient. “I wake up, it’s on my mind. Go to sleep, it is on my mind.
Demonstrators gather in front of the entrance to a U.S. Coast Guard base in Oakland on Oct. 23, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
“It’s just the everyday fear like constantly having to remind your family members that they have rights, constantly having to remind people not to open the doors … I have family members who are scared to go to the grocery store, scared to get gas, scared to go get water. Basic necessities.”
Throughout the summer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP officers have ramped up local enforcement operations, moving to have undocumented immigrants’ asylum cases dismissed and making detentions outside of courtrooms and ICE field offices. The move was unprecedented prior to the Trump administration.
“It feels like an invasion,” said Oakland resident Sonia Diermayer, who was at the Oakland protest earlier Thursday morning. “It feels as if the federal government is basically invading our communities to spread terrorism and fear, and it’s working.”
Recent expanded immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Portland, Oregon, has been followed by Trump sending National Guard troops to the cities. Though he has cited alleged crime spikes and violent protests against immigration enforcement operations as justification, with little evidence to show for it, the rollouts of federal troops have all targeted Democrat-led cities and raised criticisms of abuse of power.
Over the last few weeks, Trump has set his eyes on the Bay Area, and specifically San Francisco, as the next target for National Guard deployment.
A used flash bang device lies on the ground near the entrance to a U.S. Coast Guard base in Oakland on Oct. 23, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
“It’s the authoritarian playbook,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a press conference Wednesday. “For this administration, you send first masked men to the cities that you want to militarize … communities are torn asunder, it creates anxiety and stress, and that manifests into expressions of free speech. And then you use those expressions and those images as the justification to send the guard and suppress free speech, suppress free expression.”
Lurie and Trump confirmed that plans for a federal “surge” into San Francisco Saturday were called off after late-night conversations between the president, his “friends in the city” — including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff — and Lurie.
“I spoke to Mayor Lurie last night and he asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn it around,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social Thursday. “The people of San Francisco have come together on fighting Crime, especially since we began to take charge of that very nasty subject.”
Lurie did not provide any information about other Bay Area cities while speaking to reporters Thursday.
“It would be really disturbing to me if Lurie didn’t have an agreement with the other mayors of the Bay Area … to make sure that we are united in stopping ICE from harming our communities,” said Michelle Mascarenhas, who was among the protesters. “That’s what I would be concerned about.”
San José Mayor Matt Mahan said in a social media statement that Trump did the “right thing” calling off deployment in San Francisco, adding that the South Bay city was the “safest big city in the nation because of the trust built between our police officers and our residents.
“We know how to keep our community safe — and we will continue to do so regardless of immigration status,” he wrote on X.
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said at a press conference Thursday that her office hasn’t received any information, and will continue to prepare. On Wednesday, Lee said the city “remains a proud sanctuary city committed to standing with our immigrant families.”
“I want to have a clean conscience for the future generations after,” said Diermayer. “That I’ve done my part. For my grandchildren, and children, and nieces and nephews … I want to give them some hope that there’s a future for them here in America.”
KQED’s Erin Baldassari and Adhiti Bandlamudi contributed to this report.